Politics of Benjamins Kafka: Philosophy as Renegade

This book provides a critical assessment of Benjamins writings on Franz Kafka and of Benjamins related writings. Eliciting from Benjamins writings a conception of philosophy that is political in its dissociation from its becoming renegade in relation to, its philosophic shame about established laws, norms, and forms, the book compares Benjamins writings with relevant works by Agamben, Heidegger, Levinas, and others. In relating Benjamins writings on Kafka to Benjamins writings on politics, the study delineates a philosophic impetus in literature and argues that this impetus has potential political consequences. Finally, the book is critical of Benjamins messianism insofar as it is oriented by the anticipated elimination of exceptions and distractions. Exceptions and distractions are, the book argues, precisely what literature, like other arts, brings to the fore. Hence the philosophic, and the political, importance of literature.